The Grace Hopper* Celebration of Women in Computing India is the only annual conference exclusively for technical women in India; it brings the research and career interests of women in computing in India to the forefront. We bring you this report of the 2011 conference that took last week in Bangalore.
From Leella Rani Dondapati

It was the Celebration of Women in Computing on December 15 and 16, 2011 at the heart of Whitefield, Bangalore. Organizers, the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, California, (US) attracted over a thousand women technology enthusiasts from academia

With the Association of Computing Machinery, as co-host, there was a special emphasis on the Science of Computing while addressing issues affecting women in general and some specific issues pertaining to their career advancement.

India Semiconductor Association (ISA), Vice Chairman Satya Gupta, said," To promote the Semi-Conductor and Electronics system designing and manufacturing in the country we need qualified workforce. As women move up the ladder in the Organisation, we believe the leadership qualities of women would be at the fore front”.

Hema Gopal, Vice-President TCS, an industry veteran for 26 years said "Women are able to take senior positions and bring a lot of insight, even while balancing career and home….How to get more senior women to the organization top level? It is very important for women to get support from the family, however this will in no way affect the capability of the woman employee in the Organization. Get empathy of the people around you. Basically it is an education which we need to give to their male colleague

Having worked in different countries with different companies, at multiple industries, Vidhya Laxman, a Masters in Computer Science Engineering from Boston University shared her thoughts on how to influence the process so that a manager in a company can initiate decisions that benefit both the employee and himself: "It is all about mutually partnering in each other’s success both in professional and personal lives. We need to understand our managers and their leadership style. Give credit to your manager --not just in his presence . Be upfront; keep communication always open and focus on the competencies. It is all about skill, super-skills and attributes that matter. Visibility through one’s accomplishments, is power."

Finally some wisdom for technopreneurs who wish to test their mettle through their start-ups. One question that always lingers on the mind of the first time technopreneur is: What does Venture Capitalist looking for?

In Product Management---Product based management is different from Enterprise based product. From strategic perspective be aware of the trade-offs. There is viral organic desire to improve the product at all functional levels. As an entrepreneur one need to have a macro perspective and also an eye for detail. Know something in-depth. You need to have a holistic perspective of things around you. " says author of Entrepedia,and founder of CARma, Nadhini Vaidhyanadhan.

Show some organic growth to get the VC's believe in you and your Idea. Looking at funding issues which are quite key to a start-up, Revathi Ashok, an Angel Investor- CFO of Companies, and alumnus of Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore said, “Today they have 6 lady investors. Three Women funded Organisations. Twenty percent of our projects are received from womem. The quality of presentations are getting better. Seventy percent of Angel Network is run by the Women. We also run an incubator... a 12-18 months program where we coach and guide women in entrepreneurship."

Founder-partner of Seed Funding, Bharathi Jacob who is into Venture Investing Business for 11 years., feels " We do investments in pre-revenue companies... if we get sure that the fund received company or a start-up would deliver,”

Broadly we invest in technology enabled business disclosed Vani Kola, Managing Director, Indo-US Venture Partners, "We invested in 28 companies in India. We invest from Rs 100 million to Rs 250 million in a company. As you start building a company there will be anxious moments, but the belief and commitment that you, your product and service would change the world is critical, believe in your Idea."

Said Deanna Kosaraju, Vice-President, Strategic Initiatives at the Anitha Borg Institute for Women: "The Grace Hopper Celebration for Women in Computing provides a platform for technical women from all over India to discuss the latest technology as well as explore professional and personal development. The demand for this conference and this community is growing as technical women understand that their network is important to their retention and advancement in their career”

Awards were given way to the promising women technopreneurs who already established their business. http://gracehopper.org.in/2011/*Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper (December 9, 1906 – January 1, 1992) was an American computer scientist and an officer of the US Navy.She was one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer, and developed the first compiler for a computer programming language. She conceptualized the idea of machine-independent programming languages, which led to the development of COBOL, one of the first modern programming languages. (Wikipedia) Our previous story on Grace Hopper: http://www.indiatechonline.com/viewimage.php?id=52

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